From the outset in the Tour Natal in March this year it was clear the title battle will be between Cronje, the champion in 2012 and 2013, and Poulter, the defending champion.
However, Cronje and long-time navigator Robin Houghton in their Ford Performance Fiesta S2000 dominated the narrative in the sugar cane fields of KwaZulu-Natal – eventually taking victory a full 44.6 seconds ahead of Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee in their Castrol Toyota Yaris.
In Natal young Henk Lategan, with Barry White reading the notes, scored their first finish and a podium position in their Volkswagen Sasolracing Polo – heralding a possible resurgence of the VW Sasolracing team. Then again, this was not to be, as it later turned out.
The Sasol Rally in April, second round in the national championship and also the second round in the African Rally Championship (ARC), turned out to be the most difficult and challenging rally ever in the Lowveld forests of Mpumalanga.
Misty and wet weather conditions made the slippery gravel roads nearly un-driveable, but again Cronje and Houghton showed their class to win the rally in emphatic fashion, notching up their third consecutive victory of the event.
They led the crippled Yaris of Poulter and Coetzee (they lost four-wheel drive in the penultimate stage) home by a huge margin of 3 minutes 38 seconds, with Gugu Zulu and Pierre Arries (Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo) finishing in an unexpected third.
The rally will also be remembered for the dramatic accident involving Lategan and White in their Polo and Japie van Niekerk and British navigator Gordon Noble in the NAD Ford Fiesta.
In slippery conditions Lategan, lying third overall and only 12 seconds behind Poulter, spun on the famous “spaghetti junction” tarmac stage, and while recovering got in the way of the fast-accelerating Ford. Both cars were extensively damaged and both teams withdrew, but luckily there were no injuries.
Another dominant performance by the Ford Performance team saw Cronje and Houghton winning the inaugural Secunda Motor Rally, chalking up their third consecutive victory for 2015.
They led from start to finish, winning the first five stages of the rally on the trot and, but for a slow puncture in one stage, it was plain sailing for the Ford crew. They were 51.4 seconds clear of Giniel de Villiers/Carolyn Swan (Castrol Toyota Yaris) at the finish.
Meanwhile the VW Sasolracing team ringed the changes, bringing Hergen Fekken back into the fold and moving Pierre Arries to partner with him, while Hilton Auffray was instilled next to Gugu Zulu.
Zulu and Auffray, in their first outing together, scoring another podium position, while Poulter and Coetzee’s problems continued, a series of mechanical problems and flat tyres, relegating them to a distant fourth in Secunda.
At this stage it seemed like Cronje and Houghton was unstoppable in their quest to secure a third national title, but in the Bela-Bela Motor Rally in May Poulter and Coetzee staged a comeback.
They kept their championship hopes alive by winning the event in the Limpopo Province convincingly, 28,8 seconds ahead of Cronje/Houghton, while the NAD Ford Fiesta crew of Japie van Niekerk and long-time navigator Gerhard Snyman (who replaced Noble after the Sasol Rally) scored their best result for the year by finishing third.
They were involved in a major tussle with Zulu/Auffray and De Villiers/Swan, beating the former by a mere 3.6 seconds, with the Toyota team only another 9.2 seconds adrift.
Poulter/Coetzee kept up the momentum in the waterlogged Volkswagen Rally in and around Port Elizabeth, overcoming the treacherous stages of the shortened rally to slip-slide their way to victory – beating Cronje and Houghton by 27.2 seconds and cutting their deficit to the leaders by another four points.
Team mates De Villiers and Swan (Castrol Toyota Yaris) put in a superb performance in the wet conditions to secure third place, followed by Van Niekerk and Snyman.
The rally scene moved inland again for the new-look Imperial Toyota Tshwane Motor Rally starting in Pretoria and then moving to the Tshwane town of Cullinan.
Cronje and Houghton showed their intent by blitzing the field on the first day, finishing the stages 12.2 seconds clear of Poulter and Coetzee. However, a steering problem in the penultimate stage on the final day – while leading the Toyota pair by 1.3 seconds – put paid to their chances of a good result.
Toyota’s Poulter and Coetzee capitalised on their misfortune, winning the event from team mates De Villiers/Swan, closely followed by the VW combination of Fekken and Arries.
Poulter’s victory in Tshwane meant the two leading protagonists in the battle for top honours were for all intents and purposes level-pegged, setting the scene for a thrilling final two tests in the series.
While Poulter was now leading on 79 points – 7 points clear of arch-rival Cronje – the two were in reality even on points after dropping their worst result, leaving both with three wins and two second places up to that point.
The Toyota Cape Dealer Rally was therefore a make or break event. Such was the tension leading up to the rally the Ford Performance team took the unprecedented step of replacing Houghton with Gerhard Snyman, Van Niekerk’s regular navigator.
This was apparently done to save weight in the car to give Cronje every chance to fight back… but the Toyota team seemingly felt the pressure even more, with both Poulter and De Villiers crashing out of the event in spectacular fashion, while even the change of navigator could not prevent Cronje from winning.
His victory in the incident-filled rally, coupled with Poulter only scoring 1.5 points under Superally rules, swung the championship odds firmly in his favour. Cronje, with 88 points, was now 7.5 points clear of Poulter, and this meant he only needed to finish third overall in the Polokwane Motor Rally, the final event of the season, to regain the national rally crown.
However, Houghton’s absence meant that Elvéne Coetzee, Poulter’s co-driver, was the de facto winner of the 2015 National Rally Navigators’ title with one event left to go.
The ever reliable Zulu and Auffray finished second in the Cape – elevating them up to third position in the championship with 53 points, 3.5 points clear of De Villiers and Swan – while team mates Fekken and Arries claimed the last podium position.
All eyes were now on the Battle in Polokwane, but this turned into a bit of a non-event when Poulter/Coetzee, lost 20 seconds to the leaders with a puncture on day one, and power steering problems on the final day of the rally.
Meanwhile Cronje and Snyman romped home virtually unchallenged, sealing the 2015 South African Rally Championship by winning the Polokwane event in fine style. They finished the final stage 22.9 seconds clear of Lategan/White, scoring the final points for the Sasolracing Volkswagen motorsport team in their Polo. While they finished the final national event 7.4 seconds ahead of former Dakar champ De Villiers and Carolyn Swan the Castrol Toyota pair did enough to finish third in the championship in their Yaris.
Robin Houghton, however, while not participating in the final two events, accumulated enough points in the first six rallies to keep his runner-up position in the 2015 navigators’ championship.
Cronje’s victory in the 2015 drivers’ championship means that he now moves up to the sixth position overall in terms of national rally titles won, and in terms of national rally wins (22) up to fifth position behind the rally legends Serge Damseaux (74), Sarel van der Merwe (66), Jan Hettema (36) and Jannie Habig (36).
Toyota again secured the Manufacturers’ title in the 2015 championship, its 23rd in the series since 1968.